March 26,2003

Dear Colleagues:

Yesterday two important legislative hearings were held: the House Committee on Education Task Force on Higher Education Financing, Roxbury Community Colllege; and the House Task Force on Economic and Workplace Development, Fall River.

I represented the MSCA at the first hearing and Jean Stonehouse, chapter president at Bridgewater State College, represented the MSCA at the second one. Our testimony has been posted on the MSCA website.

Although the two hearings were quite different, it seems that the reorganization proposals by the Romney administration have little to no support among legislators. There is also great skepticism, if not outright disbelief, greeting the Bain Reports and Romney's budget figures and proposals.

That said, many legislators are lukewarm, at best, to proposals for the restoration of revenues to previous levels. The March issue of the MSCA Perspective, now on campuses, contains a great deal of information documenting the general finding that the current fiscal crisis is a revenue problem, not a spending one. Please contact your legislators and urge their support for the restoration of revenues. The previous decade saw 45 tax cuts which now total $4,000,000,000 annually.

Copies of the Bain Reports have been provided to each chapter president; an additional set is available in my office at Salem State. If you are interested in reviewing them, please contact your chapter president directly.

On behalf of the MSCA, please allow me to express my appreciation to Jean Stonehouse for her willingness to represent us at the Fall River, and to CJ O'Donnell (chapter president at the Academy) for representing his colleagues at the Roxbury CC hearing. On a personal note, I thank my departmental colleagues who helped with my advising responsibilities this week to allow me to represent you at Roxbury.

Sincerely,

Pat Markunas
MSCA President

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